


Jack/Gil Ship Manifesto

by AnnetheCatDetective



Category: Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
Genre: Essays, M/M, Meta, Other, Ship Manifesto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 11:50:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16953471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnetheCatDetective/pseuds/AnnetheCatDetective
Summary: Because it had to be done. Or because I love them. A look at Jack and Gil from Transylvania 6-5000, and how they are kind of super in love (even if Jack can't admit it to himself).





	Jack/Gil Ship Manifesto

Hey, so I’ve been writing this ship-two-people-care-about a lot lately, and I got to thinking... maybe none of you have seen this delightful movie, it’s... older than many bona fide adults at this point, and it’s pretty goofy, it was made in Yugoslavia with a third of a budget and two thirds of a script, you know... unless you caught it running on basic cable as a kid, you may never have even heard of Transylvania 6-5000, were it not for you following me through my rapid and incomprehensible shifts in hyperfocus. (I had to screencap this movie myself because there’s so little out there. I may have gone a little overboard)

 

Well! Today, I explain to you why, goofy as the movie may be, its main characters are absolutely worth shipping! Meet Jack Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) and Gil Turner (Ed Begley, Jr)

(this is both an accurate representation of me about to go crazy on you guys with excessive screencaps, and also the _second_ time within five minutes of our meeting this duo that Jack has grabbed onto Gil.)

 

So, exposition time-- Jack and Gil work for Gil’s father, who runs a cheap tabloid. Gil is absolutely comfortable with this, both because it’s his dad’s paper, and because he honestly believes in a lot of crap. He’s not _stupid_ , but he is kind of dumb. His only moment of doubt in being told to hunt down Frankenstein’s monster is that he’d have thought he’d be dead by now. Jack is a Real Journalist who wanted to change the world and believes in fighting for the little guy, and this is not what he thought his career would be. He’s angry at the boss for the lack of journalistic integrity, he’s frustrated that Gil believes this crap and furthermore is not opposed to writing about crap even he doesn’t believe in. He does not want to go to Transylvania-- of all places-- to look for Frankenstein-- of all things.

Gil, of course, reaches over to comfort Jack, during his first bout of ‘I’m a real journalist’ upset. Gil doesn’t really seem to mind when Jack snaps at him in all this, too. One gets the feeling that Gil spends a lot of time trying to soothe both Jack and his father, so that the latter doesn’t fire the former.

There is NO PARTICULARLY GOOD REASON why Gil should press himself entirely up against Jack at this point, as he tries to smooth over relations, and yet he spends a good bit of time just plastered to his side. While he’s verbally reassuring his father that they’ll do their hack jobs and everything will be great, he’s physically making the two of them very much a Unit.

Okay, this, THIS is the moment at which Jack turns to Gil and says ‘Don’t touch me’, despite the fact that in this scene, Jack has put his hands on Gil fully _TWICE AS MUCH_ as Gil has done to him. Gil, for the record, does not believe he touches Jack at all??

Jack being a terrible boyfriend. AND HERE’S THE THING-- as Jack gives examples of how Gil should not touch him, poking him in the shoulder and gently smacking his forehead, Gil is not upset that he has been poked and smacked, oh no-- Gil is upset because he has never, and WOULD NEVER do a thing like this to Jack, and it’s hurtful Jack would accuse him of it!

 

Okay, here’s where I need to break in with The Headcanons, which, the Weird One you can take or leave, but which the two of us who already care about these dumb, beautiful boys have taken to: A) that Jack loves Gil-- which is kind of a given, anyway, since this is a ship manifesto and we have to assume that the characters have some kind of a thing for each other-- but is super repressed re: all his gay thoughts (not unreasonable in 1985, it’s a Bad Fuckin Time to be gay), and so his thoughts and feelings are often at odds with his words and actions, and B) the two of them have a kind of a psychic bond and Gil is frequently responding not to what Jack says and does, but what Jack _wants_. This isn’t really necessary to buy into in order to ship it, but it makes a couple of scenes make slightly more sense, honestly? Regardless of how in tune Gil is with Jack’s intent over actions, he is immensely forgiving in his devotion.

Also, even WHILE THEY ARE BICKERING about their assignment and how crap it is, they move in perfect sync with each other. Like, that’s the thing, they’re always very physical with each other and very physically in tune with each other, even during the times that it seems like they shouldn’t be. They take each step in sync, and when Gil’s dad yells down to them from upstairs, they turn in sync. Also, I just wanted an excuse to post one more screencap of Gil in his ABSOLUTE BEST OUTFIT. I would wear that sweater vest, tbh.

 

I’m going to take a moment to be real shallow, too, like… they just look right together? They’re both 6’4” (and like, a half, in Jack’s case?), just… lanky, lanky boys. If this movie didn’t have the tallest cast in general, they would look so ridiculously outsized next to everyone in the world but each other?? There’s a really nice contrast in coloring, with Jack’s dark hair and eyes and olive complexion and then Gil’s blond, blue-eyed paleness. Then there’s the detail that I find myself unable to get over, and which is really just kismet in terms of casting, because a lot of casting options might have given us two guys who fit each other physically or who have certain contrasting features, but the _moles_. They each have a mole on the opposite side of the chin from the other, so they _mirror_ , and I don’t know why that kills me so much, but it does.

 

Okay, moving onto the actual stuff.

Jack and Gil arrive in Transylvania and confirm to each other that rather than being dark and spooky, it’s actually very cute. Then Jack spots the woman he will spend the film wooing, and he immediately reaches for Gil, not just to tap him briefly and get his attention, but to GRAB ONTO HIM. Both hands, firm grip, exactly enough space between their bodies that they wouldn’t be pulled off the floor at a middle school dance, but not much more than that.

Gil’s ‘oh I see’ expression upon realizing that Jack is about to go flirt with a woman. He is… disappointed, but resigned, and just kind of goes along with it. Jack is charming and cute, but also completely bizarre, by the way, when it comes to flirting with said woman. Like, he can’t help being charming and cute, but for a guy who must flirt with women enough that his partner has developed this kind of familiar resignation, he doesn’t seem to know HOW to. Also, like… he’s in a foreign country, as is she, they came in on the same busful of tourists, but he can’t really have any expectation of a _relationship_ \-- when he goes up to talk to her, it’s with every expectation that they will only be in each other’s lives a couple of days, _but_ , she is a socially acceptable target for his romantic interests, she’s someone he can flirt with and have a good time with who will not expect anything of him, allowing him to be Totally Heterosexual while still keeping Gil in the place of the person he’s going to continue to spend most of his time with and the person he’s going to care the most about.

 

Elizabeth, like Gil, is blonde and has a kind of spacey air at times (and is going to frustrate him a little as well), though she seems very sharp beneath that, and is actually… like, a badass. This is not a ship manifesto that wants to demean the designated love interests, because I actually like them both, I just don’t think they’re really lasting _love_ , and I think the boys _are_.

Again, Jack checks in with Gil before going off to flirt, there’s a lingering touch that falls between shoulder and chest, and like… Jack should not need to get, if not permission, than at least assurance that Gil will be fine without him for a minute. Gil is a grown man who you might reasonably assume could sit in a hotel lobby for two minutes without missing him (although you’d… you’d be wrong to assume that. BUT, still). Jack doesn’t need permission to flirt, unless he’s already more invested in Gil than mere friends-and-coworkers. He gives Gil the opportunity to hold him back from it, and Gil lets him go.

JACK SHOULD NOT HAVE LEFT GIL ALONE, as it turns out. In the short window of time that Jack was off flirting, Gil has compromised their ‘investigation’ (such as it is) and also made them a laughingstock. The thing is, right before Jack comes in, Gil is UPSET. There’s a moment where you see the emotions in his face as he’s being laughed at and it’s not acted like comedy fodder-- he’s frustrated, embarrassed, hurt, and perhaps even a little angry, and it feels _real_ , and then Jack comes in and Gil is suddenly just ‘aw shucks, I messed up’ about it instead. Which he _did_ , and Jack isn’t happy with him at all, but Gil, who has been floundering in embarrassment and failing to salvage any dignity out of the moment, trusts Jack to be on his side and take care of him, and while they are in front of other people? Jack _IS_. Jack does a better job than Gil had at playing things off casually, not that it does much good, but he also takes Gil by the arm and shepherds him out, removing him from the scene of his embarrassment.

Bodies close together at first, Jack very much angling himself between Gil and the greatest current source of mockery, and even when Gil starts propelling himself out the door, Jack keeps a grip on his arm. He doesn’t let go of Gil until they’re outside, where Gil is no longer upset. Only then does Jack round on him, when they’re A) away from the people who had been laughing at him, and B) Gil is pretty over it. And that’s another thing about them-- and potentially about the bond between them-- Gil is done being embarrassed the _moment_ he’s not being laughed at. He’s ready to move on and bounce back, and Jack is still really carrying the sting. Jack complains that Gil made both of them look like idiots, when at most people saw Jack as ‘the friend of that idiot’-- they were both laughed at a bit, but Jack was really just mockery-adjacent. If, in the hotel, Jack had turned and said ‘Gil, you idiot, how could you be so stupid’, no one would have laughed at _him_. It’s in his nature to hold onto these wounds to his dignity more than Gil-- who is definitely a man used to having zero dignity-- but the wounds, in this case, are not his. Gil is the one who appeared foolish and attracted mockery, and Jack chose to ally himself more closely with him and take some of it, rather than to distance himself by berating Gil publicly.

 

Granted, calling Gil an asshole out in the street is not great, but the whole thing really shows how Jack views them as a single entity in a sense.

I don’t have anything important to say about this one, really, except that Jeff Goldblum is really seducing the camera here. And also that at _least_ the tail end of the cab ride from town up to the castle where our two intrepid reporters are staying, Jack has had his arm along the back of Gil’s seat-- I do not think he’s at _all_ aware of how much physical contact he initiates, but it’s _so_ much. Gil probably spends a lot of the ride leaning forward, because he is a giant puppy dog of a man and he wants to see everything, but Jack’s arm is still right there, and like… there is just not a lot of space between them? Jack could be leaning against the opposite side and maximizing what little space there is-- which, for two 6’4” guys in the back of a tiny little cab, still isn’t much-- but instead he leans in towards the center, towards Gil. And they will continue to stand way too close and grab onto each other as they head inside, because that’s just who they are, and I won’t give you every single screencap I’ve taken of the two of them touching/standing well within each other’s personal space because it’s a LOT, but like… gosh. Also, all the many times Jack looks at Gil as if to say ‘you’re lucky you’re cute’ in response to whatever Gil’s current nonsense is.

Honestly, Jack’s default expression throughout breakfast is ‘fond amusement’, but also, THEY ARE PRESSED TOGETHER, PRACTICALLY FROM SHOULDER TO ELBOW, SITTING AT A TABLE WHICH SEATS EIGHT AT THE LEAST, MAYBE TEN, AND IS CURRENTLY SEATING THREE. There is no earthly reason for these two men to be all up on each other, except that they are more comfortable being all up on each other than they are apart.

 

They only really separate physically in this scene when Fejos comes in between them, at which point they don’t re-press up against each other, but they do exchange some cute looks. Also, Jack is… way too amused by Gil’s being ruffled and bothered, but it doesn’t feel _mean_. It feels like he’s just… enjoying watching him a little too much. Trying not to laugh rather than teasing outright, and the occasional look that’s just a little too fond.

Jack being a terrible boyfriend again, but this is-- well, it’s a fun bit, comedy-wise, but this is one of the instances of it feeling like Gil is having a very different experience re: their conversation than the one that exists in reality? And they bicker a bit and it’s cute, and again, Gil is not REMOTELY put off by Jack pushing him out of the room with a hand on his face? Like, he does not for a _second_ seem to believe that Jack does not actually want his company, they just need to work out the timing of his entrance?

Jack is wearing, at MOST, boxer shorts under that robe. Gil trails after him back and forth around the room doing his level best to keep touching him, as he talks about their story.

Even when they bicker, they’re close, they’re touching, and like… So when they had been in front of Gil’s dad/their boss, Jack had snapped at Gil to not touch him? Here, where they are in private, Jack has no problem with Gil touching him. While he wears, again, at MOST, shorts under that robe. He does not register Gil touching him while he is undressed as something out of the ordinary or as something to put a stop to-- the demand that Gil not touch him is seemingly only reserved for being in front of the boss/Gil’s father, because he also doesn’t ask Gil not to touch him in general public, or in front of any other person. While he moves around in this scene, it’s never to shake Gil off, or even to put distance between them, it’s to get his room unpacked and set up, and any contact Gil initiates is allowed.

ALSO, THIS. This is the most MARRIED argument they have, the most married argument they COULD have-- this is Jack’s ‘you’re just like your father’ and Gil’s immediate ‘don’t you talk about my father’. (Gil is the outlet of a lot of Jack’s self-loathing, as the guy who’s at the crossroads between ‘my career is a mess and I hate my job’ and ‘I would really, really like to be seen as Heterosexual but I am having all of these Gay Emotions’, but like, for all that Jack will snap at him, again, this is private, and he would absolutely be defending Gil to any outside parties, outside of when he’d been snappy and frustrated with both Turners)

 

There’s a lot more of that ‘you’re lucky you’re cute because this is crap and you’re being such a sucker right now’ look when they go see a psychic, which Gil eats up with a spoon and Jack rolls his eyes over, but I am trying not to give you every cute look that passes between them. Like, again, though-- Jack and Gil disagree on the legitimacy of fortune tellers and werewolves and everything else, but while Jack may grumble about Gil’s belief, there’s a line he won’t cross in terms of how he talks about it? There’s a difference between ‘this is stupid’ and ‘you’re stupid’.

The boys get sent off on shenanigans, and of COURSE staking out this house means they have to be FULLY pressed together, their faces two inches apart.

FULLY PRESSED TOGETHER. Complete with suggestive flashlight positioning. (I’m sparing you so many extra screencaps of these guys all up on each other in the moonlight by the way)

At this point, Gil _fully_ believes they may be in some danger, and Jack fully does not, which is probably the only reason he allows this _walking disaster_ to bravely throw himself between Jack and ‘danger’. (Gil is generally kind of a scaredy cat, but he’s so excited in this scene and just a little physically protective-- but like, they’re both very physically protective of each other)

This is Gil, dejected that there was nothing spooky after all that they could have written about. This is not Gil’s room, and this is not Gil’s bed. This is Jack’s bed, and Jack is going out with Elizabeth, and I didn’t get a good shot of Gil flopping out on Jack’s bed-- he’s not there for long, because Jack immediately tells him he meant in Gil’s own room/bed, but… whatever their relationship at this point, Gil at least does not think it unreasonable that he should at least nap in Jack’s bed while waiting for him to get back, if not spend the night with him there. (This bed, by the way, is NOT sufficient for two men of their height, or even really one of them?? But Gil not only starts to settle right down in Jack’s bed, he complains at being told to go to his own!)

I just want to note that Gil’s bed is actually larger and sturdier and in all ways nicer than Jack’s. But Gil wanted to stay in Jack’s room.

Jack barreling into Gil’s room in the middle of the night because Gil screamed for him! Zero hesitation! Immediately a man of action!

Jack deciding that this was not necessary after all and that Gil was not in any danger and has woken him up for nothing. But not having one single problem with Gil grabbing onto him while they’re both dressed for bed (again, for Jack to be wearing pajama pants, they would have to be fuckin’ capris, he’s wearing underwear or nothing under there. He’s in Gil’s room so fast that either his Gil Sense started tingling and he got up _before_ Gil screamed his name, or he was sleeping in his robe, by the way.)

Okay, this has nothing to do with the ship at all, I just really love this moment of Gil pretending to be super casual when these two old ladies catch him trying to climb the wall of the sanatorium? Anyway.

Jack keeping his hand on Gil’s chair when they’re in a meeting with the authorities. He might not believe the weird stuff Gil comes out with, but he can tell when people are being fishy, so he’s on board with investigating even if he thinks he’s uncovering a very different story from the one they’re supposed to be on.

Continuing their habit of being in each other’s personal space as they confirm they are very much on the same page about their investigation…

(Okay, these are absolutely unnecessary screencaps in terms of a ship manifesto, I just really love them??)

Okay, THIS one, though-- as they make this run, they are constantly reaching to try and grab onto each other?? Gil is hanging off of Jack’s blazer, Jack keeps blindly groping back behind himself to make sure he hasn’t lost Gil, like… they cannot exist without reaching for each other.

Jack’s solution to their problem, by the way, is not very good for Gil here, but that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the fact that even though they’ve just dashed over here with a sense of purpose and urgency, even though Jack has so often been frustrated with Gil over the course of the movie in general, even though he fully intends to put Gil in a position Gil will not enjoy, there’s an odd tenderness and _familiarity_ to his dressing him in the robe? The gentle reminder to give him an arm, getting him all set. Even the expression on his face goes a little soft and sweet for just a moment. Like… Jack is _enjoying_ this, and you could argue that he’s pre-enjoying getting him mistaken for an inpatient breaking out in order to get him in, but he _could_ have hurried him or been rougher with him-- or, he _could_ have _handed_ Gil the robe and told him to put it on himself, Gil being a grown-ass man and all, capable of dressing himself. But he doesn’t.

 

(Then again, in terms of Gil being capable of dressing and undressing himself, the man went to bed wearing his watch and is a complete disaster and might actually need Jack for some things…)

(Gil, minutes later, trusts Jack absolutely even though Jack is just pulling the same stunt in reverse and Gil is the one who’s going to get manhandled over it)

Just two reporters holding hands-- well, grabbing onto each other’s arms, at least-- because they’ve got a story to follow. They are physically and mentally in sync for most of this conversation, and they are touching A LOT.

A

LOT.

 

Technically Jack backed himself up against that wall and Gil just followed him in order to get both hands on him, but that positioning, that smile… the sheer amount of physical contact as they discuss work.

The moment Gil lets go of Jack, Jack is reaching to touch Gil, like… the contact between them during this whole bit is almost constant, and it just passes off between them who’s initiating more of it.

THIS IS GIL’S FACE WHEN JACK MENTIONS SEEING ELIZABETH AGAIN, by the way.

Like, he was so excited about doing this together, and he’s just kind of… Whereas before, he was resigned to the flirtation and slightly testy on the occasion of the first date, the second date gets to him. Even though the thing with Elizabeth is by its nature kind of like a vacation fling, the more Jack sees of her, the less cool with it Gil seems to be. Especially coming right here, where it kind of dashes his plans to go and press his entire body up against Jack’s in the course of an investigation somewhere else, as seems to be standard for them.

 

(also, in here is where Gil meets his ostensible love interest, Odette, and I want to point out that Odette is Geena Davis in a revealing costume and four inch heels, and therefore absolutely the most beautiful woman on earth in 1985, and she is inexplicably driven wild with lust by Gil of all people, and he is DESPERATE TO AVOID BEING KISSED BY HER. Which is reasonable enough when a stranger wearing vampire fangs comes onto you, but like… Gil checks his watch while she’s flirting with him and then fakes a knock at the door to get out from under her and is just very panicked by the whole thing)

 

BUT THIS BRINGS US TO THE SCENE. In fact, the scene is [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQxhtEKDv3M), if you want to see it in action, and I really recommend that you do.

Jack has been on a romantic picnic with single mother Elizabeth, but Gil, panicked after his whole kissed-by-a-girl experience, _really_ needs to talk to him. Jack’s hand goes _straight_ to Gil’s knee even as he tells him to please not ruin this date, but Elizabeth is actually really keen to duck out and let these two men who can’t keep their hands to themselves speak privately.

The _moment_ she’s gone, Gil’s hand is on Jack’s thigh, and it is as HIGH on the thigh as you can get with a PG rating. He doesn’t just rest it there a moment, he WRAPS HIS HAND AROUND THE TOP OF JACK’S THIGH and holds on a bit, before Jack gets him up on his feet-- and of course, through that whole process, they are well within each other’s personal space, faces inches apart at moments.

Jack, his hand on Gil’s chest, claiming personal responsibility for Gil and everything he’s done, like… he talks as if it is a given that he ought to be taking care of Gil? And that the natural order of things is that he needs to keep Gil out of trouble. And as much as he is complaining, like… Gil’s appearance here and upset of the romantic picnic with Elizabeth is basically just Gil’s demolishing of Jack’s attempts at heterosexuality in miniature? It doesn’t matter _why_ Gil showed up, it doesn’t matter that this particular woman has left at this particular moment, because as nice as she is and as much as he enjoys her company, in the long term _she_ doesn’t matter-- what matters is that Gil appears and puts a hand on Jack’s shoulder (and then his thigh), and forces Jack to grapple with who he is and what he wants, and there’s a push-pull in him. For every moment that he verbally attempts to put distance between Gil and himself, he’s drawing him closer physically, and Gil’s head is spinning a bit as Jack goes through these mental gymnastics trying to outrun his feelings for the man and finding himself unable to let go. He can play the part of the frustrated coworker who’s sick of everything Gil puts him through, but he can’t stop himself from touching and holding him, and Elizabeth is out of sight, out of mind-- Jack complains about Gil being paranoid, believing in the supernatural, etc, but the spoiled date he doesn’t seem to care about.

Gil, by the way, has NO compunctions?? Gil declares his love for Jack openly and loudly, mid-bicker, Gil USES THE WORDS “I love you, Jack!”, just in case Jack was in any doubt. HE USES THE WORDS, and he does so as if he completely expects Jack _wants to hear them_. Not necessarily that saying them would make Jack not upset with him, but that Jack would just be happier to be reassured?

At which point Jack grapples Gil into the _gentlest_ strangling in film history. WHILE SINGING ‘Do You Love Me’, in which he has cast himself as Golde and altered the lyrics to fit the frustrations of living with Gil, but like… I could not make this up, he sings to him, while _gently_ getting him down on the ground, to the tune of a song about _discovering that you are in love with someone you have spent the better part of your life struggling alongside and struggling with and frustrated by and taking care of_? Remembering that Jack has already decided it is his job to take care of Gil. And he doesn’t _launch_ himself at Gil, he doesn’t _topple_ Gil, he waits until Gil’s arms are around him (he doesn’t have to wait long, actually, because Gil wraps his arms around Jack the moment Jack’s hands are on his neck. As for how not-choking-him this is going, Gil is able to shout at full voice the entire time, by the way, so there’s absolutely no airway constriction going on.) By the time Jack is on top of Gil, he might not even be upset anymore?

 

Oh. Yeah, getting Gil down on the ground is just the first step to LYING FULLY ON TOP OF HIM.

I could not for the life of me screencap the split second before this, where they were crotch-to-crotch, but look, this is not a bad angle.

(and I am LIVING for Gil’s _face_ when Jack does swing up off of him-- knowing that he has absolutely been getting as much air as if he did not have Jack’s hands around his neck, and _yet_ … He may or may not have been in this position before.)

 

I also didn’t get a good screencap of the _grip_ Jack has on Gil when he helps him back up to his feet, but like… there’s just a lot of physical contact all over the place, and while you might not think ‘strangulation=romance’, there is really something about these two, and the way that Jack is unceasingly physically gentle with Gil even when he’s ‘attacking’ him, that just…

Gil has _no_ idea why Jack did that, despite Jack laying out a fairly clear list of frustrations, but then, if Gil is less tuned into what Jack says and more tuned into A) Jack’s body language, _or_ B) Jack’s actual, buried feelings of want and affection and dare I say it, love, it explains some of his moments of extreme ditziness-- moments which do line up to times when Jack is in conflict.

 

Jack, for his part, straightens Gil up and asks if he’s okay (and Gil _is_ , because that was the _gentlest strangling ever_ and at no point was Jack careless about his physical safety). And throughout this, like… whatever genuine frustration he might have felt is entirely evaporated by the time they’re on their feet, and when Gil asks if he was mad, while he might have been once, he isn’t now. He’s back into fond amusement when Gil would like to know why he did that, and his answer is…

That apparently he just can’t resist grabbing onto Gil for any reason. (I didn’t catch the best ‘you asked for this’ playful smile right before this moment, but like, Gentle Strangling #2 is so devoid of any frustration!)

Once again, Gil grabs onto Jack immediately so that he can be lowered gently to the ground and climbed on top of, and like… Gil is still _so_ confused by this entire experience, but round two is really just… Jack wasn’t done being on top of him? It comes off as very playful, and more… like, if not ‘affectionate’, this is an Acceptable way for two men to get this physically close? This is something that’s allowed, this is an excuse to be holding onto each other everywhere and rolling around on the ground together (well-- writhing, more than rolling, because Gil never flips them over or anything, but…)

That feel when you get back to your date and he and his handsy friend are straightening their clothes and brushing off the leaf litter. Actually, Elizabeth doesn’t even care about that because her daughter is missing and she hasn’t honestly been _that_ into Jack thus far.

And I just have to point out that Jack and Gil are almost incapable of splitting up to cover more ground because they CANNOT run in opposite directions, and in fact, cannot stop GRABBING for each other. They zig-zag a moment just operating on the instinct to stay as close to each other as possible at all times.

There’s no single screencap for the utter madness that follows, so I’ve just chosen this one, but anyway, once they finally manage to detach from each other and to split up to search, Gil gets scared out of his mind-- I mean, gibbering and WEEPING and screaming with fear.

 

The moment he _stops_? When he sees Jack being attacked by the supposed wolfman, who he immediately launches himself at, ready to fight. He’s… not _good_ at fighting, but Jack in peril snaps him right out of his own fear and propels him into something not entirely dissimilar from action.

 

Of course, he then gets swept off, at which point Jack, who had been a skeptic right up until this moment, sounds a bit lost trying to explain that the wolfman took his friend. Oh, and also, there is still a missing child in the woods that both these guys now have every reason to think is full of monsters, and yet-- and yet!-- when Elizabeth springs Jack from jail to go look for her missing child, because the cops had decided to arrest him and take the night off instead of doing anything about that, Jack-- who goes from defiant and angry when in his cell to _very_ lost and worried once he’s out and Elizabeth asks where his friend is-- instead goes looking for Gil.

 

On the one hand, there’s Gil, a grown man-- a disaster, but a grown man-- who may or may not have gotten out of trouble on his own after being separated. On the other hand, there is the _missing child of the woman you are supposedly wooing_.

 

Jack chooses Gil.

 

In fact, Jack goes to the previously-derided-as-phony psychic to find out where Gil might be.

And makes a variety of faces upon discovering Gil in peril.

Jack rushes to Gil’s side (where there are some nice shots of him just like… in a beam of light? But the best one of those is the least in terms of touching, so you’re getting these instead), and just… right away, he’s got one hand on Gil’s forehead and the other over his stomach, like, right about at his waist? He’s frantically worried, from here he goes to checking Gil’s pulse and patting his hand. Jack is a _mess_.

Gil, stirring after the patting and petting and shouting of his name…

Jack, struck through with relief at Gil being alive.

(and I don’t know, I think the following please-tell-me-you’re-here-to-rescue-me face is cute?)

 

Anyway, throughout, Gil also gets a more than fair amount of attention from Odette, and he is A) on the verge of tears when left alone with her so that Jack can fight his captors, and B) about as angry as he ever gets-- which is to say, ineffectually frustrated and a little stroppy and snippy-- when she tries to undress him.

 

He’s actually very sweet with Odette after the climax of the whole thing, like… he’s kind and encouraging and gentle with her… but the moment she wants to kiss him, he panics again? Like, Gil and Odette are definitely not going anywhere. Even if Jack and Elizabeth wanted to try to get in touch and get together after returning home-- presuming she actually does plan on living in New York again after her troubles with her ex-- Gil and Odette are never seeing each other again after this, and Gil is going to be relieved not to have a gorgeous woman trying to kiss him?

 

In fact, during the denouement, as these guys are both dancing with their respective dates for the evening, they are far more focused on talking to each other than they are on the ladies. But then… that just seems really par for the course for them, when the connection between them and the urge they both have to touch each other as much as possible is a force of nature unto itself.

 

(and I don't really need to put the fic recs here, because all you really have to do if you're ready to read what's out there is to click on the ship tag, but please check it out!)


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